We want to help you practice better. Our newsfeed will keep you up to date with regular advice. Free personal help is available in our practice clinic and new news and offers can be found in our newsletter.

It’s been quite a while since our last round up from the world of music practice on the web. In that time a few new sites dealing with music practice have arrived and we’ll be reviewing some of those in the coming weeks. For now, onto the links . . . . . .

Work continues to get all the old HTP content available again to our readers. Along with the newly revised content will be some other subtle changes to the site.

Everyone will have access to all content from the old site – no need to create an account and signup. Everything from the old site will be totally free!

We’re making it easier for you to get practice help. There will still be the option of help via the Practice Clinic but you’ll also be able to get faster help and we’ll be stepping up support for our twitter community.

Simplified design – we’re removing all the fluff and keeping it simple – just good advice on how to practice better.

You can see our progress on the rebuild so far by visiting any of the Practice Method sections. Several of the Resource sections are also complete including, humour, games, polls, quotes and bibliography.

Unfortunately, How To Practice was recently the victim of a Malware attack which installed some malicious code on the site and attempted to drive our visitors elsewhere. Luckily we detected this very early and as a result have had to take the site down whilst we resolve the issues.

The infection appears to be deep and difficult to detect so we have therefore taken the decision to re-build the site from the bottom up. All of the old content will become available again over the next few weeks and our Music Practice Diaries will still be available.

In the meantime we appreciate the patience and understanding of our users and as always . . . . .

We want to help you practice better. Our newsfeed will keep you up to date with regular advice. Free personal help is available in our practice clinic and new news and offers can be found in our newsletter.

Are we all blind, unfeeling and without emotion?

Of course not!

Why then do a lot of musicians only use their hearing sense when practising? Yes, listening properly is VERY important. Make use of the other senses as well and you can make your music come alive, have more fun and learn things more quickly.

Sight

What can you see? Do you have music? What does it look like? In a performance take time to notice your surroundings.

Touch

Playing your instrument is NOT a purely mechanical process. What does your instrument feel like? Can you touch it in different ways? Where do you experience most pressure? Where is your touch the lightest? Is you instrument hot? Cold? Sticky? Soft?

Moving

Standing absolutely still may be the way you play. I’m guessing though that you actually move around a bit as you play. Notice what these movements are, embrace them and perhaps develop them. Without your instrument try moving and dancing with the music. How does it make you feel to move to the music? Which movements seem most appropriate?

Emotion

How does your music make you feel inside? Think deeply about this. All the music you play should have some effect on you. If it does not affect you emotionally how can you expect your audience to experience any emotion? As you are doing this try to understand what it is about the music that makes you feel that way. Identify these things and you can do more of them to convey these feelings to your audience.

Taste & Smell

Are there any smells or tastes evoked by your playing?

Hearing

Learn to listen in many ways. What does your playing sound like to the audience? How does your overall playing sound? What is the minute detail of that staccato note?

Spend some time to work through each of these senses. You may surprise yourself with new perspectives.